Cujo

your mobo/cpu/ram is currently your biggest bottleneck when running source/hl2. this game is VERY cpu intensive. you don't have to believe me but i'm giving you an honest answer. get an a64 3200+ and you'll notice a bigger difference than just getting an x800 and throwing it in agp 4x with your setup. if you're next upgrade still involves agp then by all means go for a high end agp card. otherwise look at saving a bit more money and doing a complete upgrade. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=2 those benchs are with a top of the line vid card. notice going from a 2.8ghz (already much better than yours cause it is running at 800fsb with pc3200 ram and a faster chipset) to a a64 4000+ yields a 30fps increase. again you don't have to believe me but it's your loss.

somehow i'm first. no issues with that though... lol

don't get anything higher than say a 9800pro/xt or a 6600gt. it's just not worth it. since you play source i'd say a 9800pro/xt is the best deal, if you can find one, just because hl2 loves ati. oh and get a 256mb one if you like aa and af. ideally get a used card to save more money. my dilema is that i traded my 9800pro and cash for an x800pro. when it came time to upgrade my other stuff i was stuck with agp cause i paid 600 for my agp card and i wouldn't be able to sell it for anywhere close to that. now i've got nf3 socket 754 which isn't bad but i'd rather have nf4 socket 939. *edit* psh i had this tab open but hadn't read it yet and now i see you've replied before i did. why geforce? unless you're a doom3 fan there's no point... farcry, unreal, hl2 all better with ati... if geforce is a must than just stay with what you've got. only thing it's really lacking is dx9 but that just means it runs everything in dx8.1 codepath. only nvidia better than that with dx9 is the 6600gt and is it worth it if you still have an old intel board with 845 chipset and agp4x? *edit2* just did a bit of research and you won't notice much of a difference in upgrading your vid card when you're still on an intel cpu of less than 3ghz and only 533fsb with ddr333 or less ram. just stick with what you have til you can afford everything new.

don't forget about power. 16 comps running source is gonna require more than 1 or 2 wall outlets.

as far as i'm concerned there should only be one option buying a new router today. d-link dgl-4300. wifi g and gigabit lan. not to mention gamefuel. i never feel lag anymore even with bittorrent going full throttle my ping is still 30-60. no spikes. no loss. only serious gaming while seriously downloading. why use two routers anyway? why not just buy a new one? if you disable dhcp you can just use the old router as a hub. that's what i do. i have about 3 old routers daisychained as hubs. only time i bring out my big 16 port is for lans.

i was suggesting that if he has cordless phones it might be a problem.

i have a friend who had mad problems with a netgear router. all his cordless phones made it go screwy and drop net connection. not sure what model.

say what?

front and side intake. rear exhaust. that's the traditional way. your psu blows out the back so you don't want all that hot air being sucked back in. also, if you keep your case on the floor, generally, the cold air will be easier to bring in by the front.

left. i think that's what default used to be when i started playing back around beta 6...

i'm not saying he doesn't have skillz. it's just EXTREMELY suspicious timing. i'm sure that's all it is though. the trouble is that with this timing, no matter what, there will always be a tiny bit of doubt in my mind unless he comes back and pwns, or if i see him on another server pwning, once vac2 is out. again, pagan i will miss you as you were one of the challenges i enjoyed on many occasions.

i like hugs ps. look who's on top of mayhem stats. woot. too bad about the reset.

also, like shodan pointed out, you're leaving right as vac2 is coming out. no offense but it's very suspicious. definately try playing for another week or two before you quit. otherwise you'll be leaving with possibly a bad rep that's undeserved.

i only called him that cause i always see him there. it wasn't meant as an insult per se. and besides, i now realize why he's there so frequently. again my appologies.

if he'd said goodbye for personal reasons then that's cool but don't leave saying you're fed up being called a stacker. i see duma's point. anyway, i'll be honest pagan. i've called you a stacker and somewhat of a pansy for hiding in annoying places(specifically aztec). but i guess taking advantage of poorly built maps isn't terrible. there are times i've had a lot of fun playin with you and others when you do things that make me scratch my head and others still where i curse off the mic. i think you just have a way of getting under some people's skin. i'm sure i get under some people's skin too. it's no reason to quit playin on gc servers though. i must say that i've tried other servers and nothing compares to the quality of play and the quality of admins here so i'm stuck for life... or as long as they play cs. ps. thanks for the shout. i'll miss fragging you as you are/were without doubt one of the most skilled regs.

sorry guys i've just been basing my opinions on a general consensus i've heard from many ppl(from cal-m to those who bought hl2 and now play source) and from my personal experiences. i play recrud all the time and i constantly hear people complaining about awps and autos. generally these are people at the bottom of the scoreboard. i kindly tell these people that there is a scopeless server they can play on if they don't like awps. i don't put a lot of faith in psycho stats as i'm 35th. besides it's hard to keep your stats up when you're constantly switching to the losing team to help out. sorry shep if you took the noob comment personally. i was not calling you a noob. i remember when i started i hated awps and, if autos were as good back in beta 6, then i would have hated them as well. i also hated ff. i wasn't aware that there were assigned admin locations that you guys have to abide by. personally, i love going up against awps as it's much more of a challenge. mayhem is a totally different experience without awps. i enjoy playing there on occasion as well though i usually only find myself there when recrud is empty. my appologies to anyone offeneded by my comments. i will refrain from making assumptions and general statements such as those in my previous posts.

shep you're a mayhem whore. of course you have a problem with scopes. check my stats. how often do i die by awps? far less than by colt or ak and almost as often as by deagle. so if awping is so easy why don't ppl with awps ever kill me? my point was greater illustrated on stock stats which i see are gone but you can check temer stats and what i've said above still applies. http://69.84.33.222/temerstats/player.php?id=1407

don't you check who's on a server before you join? i always join the one with more regs... unless it's full. but you're gc so you don't have to worry about it... just a quick question. are we still gonna do map nights where we playtest different maps? oh and is there still an ability to load up fun maps on one of the servers?

it is a different style of play yes. and one i've found more suited to noobs. just like servers without ff. the number one complaint you ever hear in cs is they hate awps and autos but i've never heard that from anyone i know who is genuinely skilled. btw, that smiley was supposed to be a winking smiley. doesn't look a thing like the msn one though...

ok cool thanks for the answers. does that mean you're looking for admins? i didn't mean to contradict myself. the jammed comment was based on the where's the 3rd server comment. the size comment was due to the general consensus in the pub forums that recrud was the best skill server and should be kept to a playable amount of players. where as mayhem is the "noob" server where scopes are not allowed. playin on stock today was disappointing. with the number of players at 28 the avg skill level seemed much lower and team play was quite low. it's hard enough to get 10-12 ppl to play as a team much less 12-14 ppl. there were many regs on too. if it was 24 ppl though it would have been all regs probably and would have been just like the big mayhem events. that's the kind of play i live for. i've been playin on gc servers for as long as they've been around back in 1.6 and then in source when it first came out. i will probably continue to play on gc servers and am planning on becoming a member this summer once i get working again. i just hope that gc continues to host a skill centered server. i know it's early but this is just my initial impression. things could change... gord ps. i'm only attempting constructive criticism please don't take any questions or comments the wrong way.

1. why did temur close? the servers are jammed now cause we're down to 2. 2. why is recrud at 33 players? last i checked the vote was to keep the same size... 3. why are 5 reserve slots necessary? 4. why is the new server 69.12.89.96 not there? i thought it was coming yesterday... i'm sure most ppl are wondering these things. plz forgive if any of these answers are posted somewhere else and i've missed them.

in the summer i will when i get money to blow. i plan on applying for admin too. today was terrible. at one point we had a wallhacker, a tker and a mic abuser all at once. that was finally after i connected to it.

how many reserve spots are there on this server? there's 29 of 33 playing and i can't join...

whatever you do, don't mess with recrud. it's the most competetive server and, as such, it's always my first choice.

i would do a format fresh install with all the latest drivers. chances are you have tonnes of background stuff running and it's just slowing your system down. with the settings in first post you should be around 70-80fps. with my old 9800pro and athlon xp3200 rig i was at 84fps without the aa and af but everything else like first setting. in general though this game is VERY cpu intensive, especially source cause there's so many physics calculations. my a64 is the only reason i'm over 100fps in this test. i can't run source at those settings otherwise i'll be below 30 way too often. especially in aztec(very gpu intensive). i find a64 really helped my dust and dust2 fps though. i'll know for sure once i get my x800xt back from rma.